Simplify text formatting in IDML files

Overview

When you upload an IDML file to Smartcat for translation, you might see segments with too many tags. If this happens, you can change the tag settings to reduce their number and speed up document processing.

Here is an example of the settings screen that you see, using a simulation file upload.

Understanding the Simplify text formatting options

There are three options to choose from.

Off

This is the default option. Choose this mode if you do not want to simplify formatting. It does not merge any CharacterStyleRange tags.

Moderate

This option applies the following thresholds:

• Kerning: [-50..50]

• Tracking: [-50..50]

• Baseline Shift: [-2..2]

Aggressive

This option applies 2x the Moderate thresholds.

At CharacterStyleRange processing time, if any of the kerning, tracking, or baseline shift parameters are within a selected threshold, they are ignored and considered equal to zero. Then the standard logic applies: if there are two or more consecutive CharacterStyleRange elements with the same style, they are merged together.

Understanding the Ignore empty applied languages checkbox

This checkbox is switched off by default. It is used to ignore specific attributes around applied languages.

If you turn it on, two consecutive CharacterStyleRange elements that differ by this attribute merge together. The first CharacterStyleRange value in the sequence wins.

FAQs

Can I translate InDesign files in Smartcat?

InDesign files can be translated in Smartcat, but before the files can be processed for translation they need to be converted from a binary format to different formats. These formats are also InDesign formats, and the conversion can be done from within InDesign itself. Depending on the InDesign version, files need to be converted to the .inx format or the .idml format. Smartcat can process both these formats.

There is more information about InDesign formats and save options at https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/saving-documents.html